Once diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, it is wise to stop taking your feet for granted. Previously you knew your feet would always recover with a bit of rest. However with diabetes, changes to your feet may put them at permanent risk, especially for ulceration.

Foot ulcers are a common complication of Type 2 diabetes. The US National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases estimates that 1 in 6 Type 2 diabetics will eventually develop foot ulcers, and about 1 in 100 will eventually have to have an amputation.

Early warning signs of future development of foot ulceration include:

• bunions
• claw toes, hammer toes, and mallet toes
• feet that easily get cold
• gradual widening and flattening of your feet due to aging

Spots of brown pigmentation on the lower legs that look like large, rusty freckles are also an indication of poor circulation to your feet.A foot ulcer occurs when your skin breaks and poor blood supply to your feet does not bring enough white blood cells that fight infection. Even a tiny, invisible nick in your skin can become a portal to infection. That’s why it is important for all Type 2 diabetics to keep the skin of their feet well moisturized, (not moist, but moisturized with skin creams), at all time. Emu oil is often recommended for this purpose, but shea butter and plant oils with aloe actually are superior. Just don’t use a scented skin cream on diabetic feet, since perfumes, fragrances, and essential oils dry out your skin in ways that can form cracks and crevices that become infected.

Always check the fitting of your shoes very carefully. Ill fitting shoes can damage your feet… look for these qualities in any shoes you buy:

• firm heels that support your foot
• plenty of room for your toes
• removable insoles to give your feet extra room if they swell
• rocker soles, designed to ease pressure on the ball of your foot

One useful piece of advice is to “wear in” new shoes for short periods of time and check your feet afterwards to see if the shoe has rubbed or pinched your feet.Equally important to preventing diabetic foot ulcers is daily inspection of your feet. Noticing any changes, especially on the tips of your toes, can help you get timely medical attention. If you can’t inspect your own feet, ask your wife, husband or partner to do this for you.

Treating foot ulcers: If you do develop a foot ulcer, don’t waste time in starting treatment… see a podiatrist and have him examine your feet to assess the depth of the ulcer. You may require an X-ray of your feet to rule out any bone involvement. A swab may also be taken to help identify the bacterium present and the anti-biotic required.

As well as caring for your feet, to minimize the risk of foot problems, good control of both your blood sugar levels and blood pressure will help keep these risks under control

Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?

To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.

Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.
http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog

Vitamin D is found in fortified milk, fatty fish like tuna and salmon and to a lesser extend in  liver, cheese and egg yolkes. Most multi vitamins also include a sufficient supply of vitamin D and if exposed to sunlight, your body can even make it’s own supply of Vitamin D.

• Inspect Your Feet Daily
  When you get home from work, or before you go to bed, take a moment to look your feet over and make sure there are no cuts or any type of small infection. If there is, please seek out a medical professional right away.
• Good Foot Hygene
  Wash your feet every day in lukewarm water, keep your toenails trimmed and change your socks daily. All of this will help prevent infections. Dry your feet well after you wash them.
• Don’t Walk Around Barefoot
  Once you start to lose some feeling in your feet, don’t risk going without shoes (not even at home). You could step on something and cut your foot without even realizing it.
• Wear Socks To Bed
  With diabetes comes restricted blood flow to your feed. Keep them warm and keep the blood pumping by wearing socks to bed.

Taking good care of your feet will keep them healthy and strong for years to come. Without it you run the risk of developing a bad infection that may lead to the amputation of your foot.

Diabetic patients will have hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar several times during the disease. This usually results after taking too much insulin, exercising more than usual, missing a meal, or drinking too much alcohol. Hypoglycemia must be understood and recognized. Be prepared to treat it always. Headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration, trembling hands, and excessive sweating are common signs of hypoglycemia. If blood sugar gets too low, you could pass out, or have a seizure. This is a serious complication and you should know how to help the person having an insulin reaction.

A serious complication of Type 2 diabetes is hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome. This complication happens when the blood sugar levels are dangerously high. The body tries to get rid of the blood sugar by removing it through increased urination. This leads to severe dehydration that can cause seizures, coma, and death. This complication can be brought on by stress, injury to the body, stroke, and the use of steroids.

Long-term complications include blindness. Damage is done to the retina by diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness. Kidney damage from diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure in the United States.

People with diabetes already are at higher risk of cardiovascular problems, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels. Arteries building up with fatty plaques can cause peripheral vascular disease or decreased circulation in the arms and legs. Damage can be caused to the nerves in the nervous system. This can lead to chronic diarrhea, uncontrollable heart rate, high blood pressure, and paralysis of the stomach.

One of the scariest complications is one I watched happen to my father. Because of nerve damage, the feet are sensitive and easily damaged by even a minor wound to the feet. Even a small cut from cutting the toenails can lead to huge problems. Because the feet are no longer sensitive because of nerve damage, a diabetic patient may not know they have a problem until it has created an ulcer where the wound is. This complication often leads to amputation. It might start with a toe that was injured and may lead to amputation of first the toe, because it is hard for any wound to heal, it may lead to further amputations. It could start with a toe, but may need more surgeries to remove more toes, the foot, and sometimes lead to removing the leg. A person with diabetes, should always walk with their feet covered, and be careful when they are grooming their toenails. A possible solution would be to have the toenails cut by a trained professional, either a visiting nurse or a licensed foot doctor.

Diabetes Inhaler Approved by United States Food and Drug Administration

Diabetics of the world are encouraged by the new research and trials looking into the disease. Critical clinical trials about curing the disease are continuing each day. Other advances have been discovered in various kinds of insulin, improving insulin pumps, and finding more convenient and compact ways to deliver insulin.

One of the most recent approvals from the United States Food and Drug Administration is Exubera. Pfizer recently released the first insulin delivery that is inhaled. It is the first approved by the FDA since the 1920’s. It is being promoted as a major advance in diabetes treatment. The approval came through on Friday, January 27 of this year. The European Commission also approved the drug on the same day.

To diabetics throughout the world, that is good news. Imagine not needing to carry needles, insulin, and syringes with you because you need multiple injections throughout the day! The insulin pen, and the pump were small strides in making this disease controllable, now we have a new method.

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions according to the World Health Organization. It affects more than 48 million people in Europe alone. People with diabetes often face severe complications because of uncontrolled blood sugar levels. These complications include cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and blindness. Another big risk for diabetics is injuring a foot or leg and because of small vessel disease, they are unable to feel it. The problem then can intensify and require amputation of the affected parts. Normally toes or foot injuries cause the problems.

What are the health costs for these complications? It is estimated over $286 billion dollars will be spent worldwide because of complications resulting from diabetes. This fact is astonishing. Imagine that amount of money going into further diabetes research or even used to feed the hungry of this world. To wipe out this disease would be a major development and worldwide celebration would break out.

Insulin has been the primary treatment for diabetes for over 80 years. It is often injected right before a meal to keep blood sugar levels tightly under control. Patients and doctors are unwilling to intensify the diabetes treatment to include insulin injections because of the need for daily and multiple injections.

This major medical breakthrough is a critical step in treating diabetes and controlling the disease worldwide. Exubera is a dry powder form of human insulin that is inhaled through the mouth into the lungs before a meal. An easy to use, hand-held device and it doesn’t require batteries or electricity. It weighs only about four ounces is comparable to a carrying case for a pair of eyeglasses. It has a special design to deliver the correct amount of insulin every time it is sued.

• Before the school year starts, arrange a meeting with the school’s principle, nurse, and your child’s teacher(s) to develop a plan.  This will not only make them aware of the situation, it will also allow you to develop a plan and determine who is responsible for doing certain things for your child.  You should also be sure to cover how your child’s situation will be handled when their teacher is sick or away.
• Educate everyone involved about what diabetes is and how to handle it.  Everyone responsible for caring for your child should know several things.
  • Your contact information.  Everyone should be able to reach you in case of an emergency or if they just have a question or concern about your child’s health.
  • Information on what diabetes is and how you are specifically treating your child’s diabetes (extra meals, insulin shots, etc).
  • Information on how to recognize a blood sugar crisis and what to do to treat it.
• If your child needs extra meals or snacks during the day, it’s your responsibility to provide them.  Set up and area with your child’s teacher where you can leave snacks and other food.  Be sure to check the stockpile regularly and refill supplies as needed.  Don’t count on the teacher to inform you if you’re running low.
• Talk to your child.  If your child has had diabetes for a while, they’re probably already aware of what that means.  Whether they’ve been dealing with it for a while, or a newly diagnosed, you should make sure they understand that even at school, they’re not allowed to eat certain things.  Teach them to recognize the warning signs of a problem and tell their teacher right away.
• Ask that the teacher inform the other students that your child has diabetes and what that means, in a respectful way.  While you may not feel it is a good idea to point out your child’s differences, your child will be getting special treatment (frequently leaving class, extra meals) and the students may resent your child if they don’t know why.  If the teacher doesn’t feel they can properly teach the subject, offer to prepare a lesson for them to present.

Dealing with a diabetic child’s needs is not easy.  While the school is responsible for making special provisions for your child, you should not count on them to do everything.  They have other children they are responsible and can only do so much.  It is up to you to go the extra mile to make sure your child is properly cared for.

As a diabetic, your body is unable to regulate glucose levels on its own. The resulting high blood sugar levels can damage your blood vessels over time. One of the first things to suffer is proper circulation and blood flow to the feet. For some diabetic patients this results in a numbing of the feet, for others, something as simple as a stubbed toe will eventually lead to infections and down the road, if the toe or foot doesn’t heal properly, amputation.

Our approach to this problem should be two-fold. As a diabetic, it is important to check your feet regularly, and also have your doctor take a close look for any potential problems at every doctor’s visit.

Once a foot sore or injury on the foot occurs, your best chance for saving the limb is to have a podiatrist and a vascular surgeon work together. The reason wounds don’t properly heal is because the blood supply to the feet is limited by clogged and damaged arteries. The vascular specialist will be able to unclog or repair the damage and ensure that enough blood is transported to the area to make healing possible.

Without it your chances of healing don’t look to great. What follows is an excerpt from an article by the associated press.

Amputation may end the grueling cycle of unhealing wounds and infection on one limb. But those patients still face grim odds. About half will develop ulcers and infections in the remaining foot, and undergo more amputations. And within five years, more than 40 percent are dead.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Recommended Reading – Diabetes Breakthrough

A snack can be a great way to give you some extra energy before you work out, when it’s time to go grocery shopping (it is actually one of our grocery shopping tips), when you feel that mid-day slump, or before you play in the park with the kids.

Here are a few healthy snack ideas for you. All of them count as 1 carbohydrate exchange.

1. 1 cup nonfat yogurt
2. 15 teddy grahams
3. 8 animal crackers
4. 3 cups of popcorn (low fat)
5. 1 small apple
6. 1 small orange
7. 1 tangerine
8. 2 plums
9. 1 small pear
10. 2 rice cakes
11. 13 reduced fat wheat thins
12. 3/4 ounce of pretzels
13. 36 gold fish
14. 2 sugar-free fudgesicles

Other good snack options include a handful of nuts, string cheese, a few slices of lean deli meat and most raw vegetables. I like to keep a bag of raw veggies like broccoli, slices of cucumber, celery, cauliflower and a few carrots in the fridge for a quick crunchy snack anytime.

Recommended Reading – Diabetes Breakthrough

If you are one of them, you need the best information out there to effectively treat your diabetes and minimize the long-term side effects. We are here to provide you with that information. We will educate and motivate you and show you that living with diabetes can be easy and fun. You will find informative articles and yummy recipes. We’ll talk about anything from the newest testing supplies to exercising to control your diabetes.